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From Amazon.com: The largely blue collar citizens of Kansas can be counted upon to be a "red" state in any election, voting solidly Republican and possessing a deep animosity toward the left. This, according to author Thomas Frank, is a pretty self-defeating phenomenon, given that the policies of the Republican Party benefit the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the average worker. According to Frank, the conservative establishment has tricked Kansans, playing up the emotional touchstones of conservatism and perpetuating a sense of a vast liberal empire out to crush traditional values while barely ever discussing the Republicans' actual economic policies and what they mean to the working class. Thus the pro-life Kansas factory worker who listens to Rush Limbaugh will repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, less likely to protect his job, and less likely to benefit him economically. To much of America, Kansas is an abstract, "where Dorothy wants to return. Where Superman grew up." But Frank, a native Kansan, separates reality from myth in What's the Matter with Kansas and tells the state's socio-political history from its early days as a hotbed of leftist activism to a state so entrenched in conservatism that the only political division remaining is between the moderate and more-extreme right wings of the same party. Frank, the founding editor of The Baffler and a contributor to Harper's and The Nation, knows the state and its people. He even includes his own history as a young conservative idealist turned disenchanted college Republican, and his first-hand experience, combined with a sharp wit and thorough reasoning, makes his book more credible than the elites of either the left and right who claim to understand Kansas. --John Moe

From RandomHouse.com: Category: History - United States; Political Science
Author: Jules Whitcover
Imprint: Random House
Format: Hardcover, 848 pages
Pub Date: November 2003
Price: $35.00 (Available from Amazon.com at $23.40)
ISBN: 0-375-50742-6

ABOUT THIS BOOK: After more than two centuries of sometimes stormy, always intriguing history, the Democratic Party of the United States survives as the oldest political organization in the world. In Party of the People, veteran political chronicler Jules Witcover traces the Democratic Party?s evolution, from its roots in the agrarian, individualistic concepts of Thomas Jefferson to its emergence as today?s progressive party of social change and economic justice. Witcover describes the Democrats' dramatic struggle to deŽne themselves and shares with us half a century of personal observation of the party through its most turbulent times.

First called, oddly enough, the Republican Party but later known as the Democratic-Republican Party and eventually the Democratic Party, this creature of Jefferson and James Madison evolved from an early ideological and personal struggle with the commerce-minded Alexander Hamilton. Seasoned by the populism of Andrew Jackson, the party was nearly undone by the ?peculiar institution? of slavery in the South, which led to the birth of the rival Republican Party and to the Civil War. Half a century later, America emerged from World War I under Democrat Woodrow Wilson as a reluctant international player, and from World War II under Franklin Roosevelt as a liberal bastion and global superpower. In the civil rights revolution, the party shed much of its racist past, but subsequent white middle-class resentments and the divisive Vietnam War opened the door to a rival conservatism that effectively demon-ized Democratic liberalism. Defensively, the party under Bill Clinton sought safer centrist ground and seemed on the brink of establishing a ?third way," until the disastrous 2000 electoral college defeat of Al Gore left the Democrats shaken and splintered. As the new century emerges, they are debating whether to return to their liberal roots, setting themselves clearly apart from the Republicans, or press on with the centrist pursuit of a broader, less liberal constituency.

In Party of the People (a perfect companion to Grand Old Party by Lewis L. Gould, a history of the Republicans published simultaneously by Random House), Jules Witcover offers a rich and comprehensive popular history of the ideas, struggles, and key Žgures that have deŽned the Democratic Party over the past two hundred years and are now

From RandomHouse.com: Grand Old Party
A History of the Republicans
Format: Hardcover
Category: History - United States; Political Science
Author: Lewis Gould
Imprint: Random House
Pub Date: November 2003
Page Count: 624
ISBN: 0-375-50741-8
Price: $35.00 (Also at Amazon.com for $23.80)

From Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War through the disputed election of George W. Bush and beyond, the Republican Party has been at the dramatic center of American politics for 150 years. In this exciting new book, the Žrst comprehensive history of the Republicans in 40 years, Lewis L. Gould traces the evolution of the Grand Old Party from its emergence as an antislavery coalition in the 1850s to its current role as the champion of political and social conservatism. Gould brings to life the major Žgures of Republican history--Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Rea-gan, and George W. Bush--and uncovers a wealth of fascinating anecdotes about Republicans, from ?the Plumed Knight,? James G. Blaine, in the 1880s, to Barry Goldwater in the 1960s, to Newt Gingrich in the 1990s. Gould also uncovers the historical forces and issues that have made the Republicans what they are: the crusade against slavery, the rise of big business, the Cold War, and opposition to the power of the federal government.

Written with balance and keen insight, Grand Old Party is required reading for anyone interested in American politics. Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike will Žnd their understanding of national politics deepened and enriched. Based on Gould?s research in the papers of leading Republi-cans and his wide reading in the party?s history, Grand Old Party is a book that will outlast the noisy tumult of today?s partisan debates and endure as a deŽnitive treatment of how the Republicans have shaped the way Americans live together in a democracy. For the next presidential election and for other electoral contests to come, this book (a perfect companion to Party of the People by Jules Witcover, a history of the Democratic Party published simultaneously by Random House) will be an invaluable guide to the unfolding saga of American politics.

"In this richly informed and timely book, Lewis Gould provides an illuminating, ¦u-ent, and persuasive history of the Republican Party. His saga addresses both issues and leaders in the frequently contentious politics of the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan, their heirs, their enemies, and their legacy. This is required reading for all political junkies, Republicans and Democrats alike.? --John Morton Blum, Sterling Professor Emeritus, Yale University

From Time Warner Books: World renowned business journalist and anchor of CNN's popular Lou Dobbs Tonight, Lou Dobbs weighs in on the most explosive economic issue of our time.

The shipment of American jobs to cheap foreign labor markets threatens not only millions of workers and their families, but also the American way of life. With the pay of corporate CEOs at historical highs and job creation at the lowest level since the Depression, corporate raiders are breaking down our borders in search of the lowest-price labor available anywhere in the world. For the first time in history, corporations are laying off Americans from well-paying jobs and replacing them with low-paid foreign workers. A recent study revealed that 14 million American jobs are now at risk of being outsourced overseas

Make no mistake, Corporate America isn't doing all this alone: Big business and Washington are in cahoots, trading our nation's livelihood for short-term gain and Lou Dobbs's bold new book takes dead aim. A stirring call to arms and an invaluable prescriptive guide to dealing with the issue, EXPORTING AMERICA tells readers what they can do to save not only their own jobs, but the American dream.

Book Description Though U.S. leaders try to convince the world of their success in fighting al Qaeda, one anonymous member of the U.S. intelligence community would like to inform the public that we are, in fact, losing the war on terror. Further, until U.S. leaders recognize the errant path they have irresponsibly chosen, he says, our enemies will only grow stronger. According to the author, the greatest danger for Americans confronting the Islamist threat is to believe_at the urging of U.S. leaders_that Muslims attack us for what we are and what we think rather than for what we do. Blustering political rhetoric 'informs' the public that the Islamists are offended by the Western world's democratic freedoms, civil liberties, inter-mingling of genders, and separation of church and state. However, although aspects of the modern world may offend conservative Muslims, no Islamist leader has fomented jihad to destroy participatory democracy, for example, the national association of credit unions, or coed universities. Instead, a growing segment of the Islamic world strenuously disapproves of specific U.S. policies and their attendant military, political, and economic implications. Capitalizing on growing anti-U.S. animosity, Osama bin Laden's genius lies not simply in calling for jihad, but in articulating a consistent and convincing case that Islam is under attack by America. Al Qaeda's public statements condemn America's protection of corrupt Muslim regimes, unqualified support for Israel, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a further litany of real-world grievances. Bin Laden's supporters thus identify their problem and believe their solution lies in war. Anonymous contends they will go to any length, not to destroy our secular, democratic way of life, but to deter what they view as specific attacks on their lands, their communities, and their religion. Unless U.S. leaders recognize this fact and adjust their policies abroad accordingly, even moderate Muslims will join the bin Laden camp. "

Book Description: How one of the greatest economic expansions in history sowed the seeds of its own collapse. With his best-selling Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz showed how a misplaced faith in free-market ideology led to many of the recent problems suffered by the developing nations. Here he turns the same light on the United States. This groundbreaking work by the Nobel Prize-winning economist argues th! at much of what we understood about the 1990s' prosperity is wrong, that the theories that have been used to guide world leaders and anchor key business decisions were fundamentally outdated. Yes, jobs were created, technology prospered, inflation fell, and poverty was reduced. But at the same time the foundation was laid for the economic problems we face today. Trapped in a near-ideological commitment to free markets, policymakers permitted accounting standards to slip, carried deregulation further than they should have, and pandered to corporate greed. These chickens have now come home to roost. "

Book Description Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize For General Nonfiction National Book Critics Circle Award Winner In her award-winning interrogation of the last century of American history, Samantha Power -- a former Balkan war correspondent and founding executive director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy -- asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders! who vow 'never again' repeatedly fail to stop genocide? Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Washington's top policy makers, access to newly declassified documents, and her own reporting from the modern killing fields, Power provides the answer in 'A Problem from Hell' -- a groundbreaking work that tells the stories of the courageous Americans who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act. "

This intriguing book shows readers where Halliburton has been doing business and with whom topping the list so far are Iran, Iraq, and Libya. It also reveals how this juggernaut of a corporation has engaged in a cycle of profits that begins by selling products and services! to potential terrorist states, contracting with the federal government during times of war against those states, then gaining valuable rebuilding contracts to help repair those states. It will also show how a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, has become an indispensable part of the U.S. military, so much so that the two are indistinguishable at times.

Halliburton is one of the first American companies to recognize the importance of aligning itself with powerful politicians, heavily contributing to campaigns, then cashing in on lucrative government contracts. Engaging and informative, The Halliburton Agenda carefully explores the arc of the company's success, its use of political affiliation, and the scope of its internationalbusiness.

Dan Briody (New York, NY) is the author of the national bestseller The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group (0-471-28108-5). He has come to be seen as an expert on the commingling of business and ! politics, particularly as it pertains to the war on terrorism and the so-called 'military industrial complex.' An award-winning business journalist, Briody has written for Forbes, Wired, Red Herring, and the Industry Standard.

Review: 'Following hard on the heels of The Iron Triangle, an examination of international consultants the Carlyle Group, Briody turns his considerable investigative skills to the rise of the Halliburton Corp., its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root and the transformation of the U.S. military establishment. With a blunt matter-of-fact tone, Briody describes the rise of the two companies from the dusty oil fields of west Texas to the marbled corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Briody contends that Halliburton and KBR have literally bought politicians, manipulated the contracting process and ridden the current wave of small wars to record profits. Small, detailed moments of intense private pressure and unscrupulous backroom deal-making d! ominate this story. While Briody seethes with indignation, there is a grudging respect for the skill with which the executives and politicians ply their trade and a bitter resignation at the reality of the ways of government contracting. Central to the Pentagon's post - Cold War strategy is outsourcing nonmilitary tasks to private contractors. One of the chief architects of this plan was Dick Cheney, defense secretary for the first President Bush. Briody argues that with Cheney now vice-president and Halliburton awarded a huge no-bid contract to reconstruct Iraq's oil fields, public outrage has grown. As the controversy simmers, Briody raises an important question: with Americans and Iraqis dying by the day, have military matters become so efficient and profitable for companies like Halliburton that war itself is easier to wage? At times the book is repetitive and has the feel of being rushed to press, but this urgency lends the book a certain gravity. Briody has his own age! nda brilliantly illuminating the increasingly crucial nexus of public need, private profit and war making. Agent, Daniel Greenberg. (May)'
Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.) "

Paul Weisskopf writes "The above book would also make an excellent suggestion. Briefly it is the history of the conflict in the middle east from l900 to l960, written by British author, John Keay. In order to understand the present it sure helps to have a little knowledge of the past."

Book Description Pertinent, scholarly, and irreverent_a uniquely ambitious and enthralling insight into the making of the world's most fraught arena.

The seeds of conflict in the Middle East were sown in the first sixty years of the twentieth century. It was then that the Western powers_Britain, France, and the United States_discovered the imperatives for interventions that have plunged the region into crisis ever since. It was also then that most of the region's modern-day states were created and their regimes forged_and their management by the West earned abiding resentment.

Sowing the Wind tells how and why this happened. The subject is essentially painful and somber, but John Keay illuminates it with lucid analysis and sparkling anecdotes set within a narrative of improbable richness and eloquence. This is that rarest of works, a history with humor, an epic with attitude, a dirge that delights. 16 pages of illustrations.

From Publishers Weekly This thorough and dense history of the Middle East from the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire through the Suez Crisis (roughly 1900-1960) is written with an eye toward the topical and with confidence that 'narrative crammed with dramatic events and eloquent personae would surely contain its own commentary.' The commentary of any narrative is determined by its content-by the sources and facts deemed worthy of inclusion. Keay's emphasis on the life stories and personality quirks of individuals impacting history recalls his bestselling The Great Arc as well as Peter Hopkirk's classic The Great Game. His choice of protagonists also follows the pattern of these books: usually Western (most often British) travelers, diplomats and entrepreneurs, from T.E. Lawrence to Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA's Middle East head who played a large role in overthrowing the shah of Iran in 1953. As the title implies, Keay blames these foreign trouble-makers and profit-seekers for 'sow! ing... the seeds of conflict' in the region. This critique of the short-sighted colonial and mercantile policies of England, France and the U.S. is not a new one, but it is replete with fresh detail and thorough strategic analysis. It should be welcomed as an approachable and engaging introduction to a big and complex subject, but not mistaken for an expert's distillation. Keay freely admits his own naivet_, claiming to be a reader and a traveler, not a scholar. Thus, as can be expected, the chapters sometimes read like they've come right off the assembly line-packaged by a popular pen's formulaic recipe. 16 pages of b&w photos, maps. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist This is a superbly written, well-researched, highly biased analysis of the causes of the current instability and hatreds that poison the Middle East from Cairo to Baghdad. Keay, whose most recent works have been on south and southeast Asia, claims to be 'open-minded,' but ut he clearly has an agenda. He comes from the school of 'it's all our fault'--that is, the trends in the region that today make it so violent and threatening to Western interests are the direct results of the blunders and injustices of French, British, and especially American imperial policies. Keay marshals an impressive array of data as he tracks developments in the region over the past century, and certainly he scores some impressive points, yet he provides no serious alternative policy that should have been followed. On the Israel-Palestine conflict, Keay sees Zionists as constantly rigid and demanding, while Arabs are perpetual victims. This is a worthwhile read, because it provides a sobering chronology of Western involvement in the region, but in pushing his conclusions so hard, Keay tends to play with loaded dice. Iva Freeman Copyright _ American Library Association. All rights reserved "

From HarperCollins.com: Since September 11, 2001, Seymour M. Hersh has riveted readers -- and outraged the Bush Administration -- with his stories in The New Yorker, including his breakthrough pieces on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Now, in Chain of Command, he brings together this reporting, along with new revelations, to answer the critical question of the last three years: how did America get from the clear morning when hijackers crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to a divisive and dirty war in Iraq?

Hersh established himself at the forefront of investigative journalism thirty-five years ago when he broke the news of the massacre at My Lai, Vietnam, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Ever since, he's challenged America's power elite by publishing the stories that others can't, or won't, tell. In exposés on subjects ranging from Saudi corruption to nuclear black marketeers and -- months ahead of other journalists -- the White House's false claims about weapons of mass destruction, Hersh has cemented his reputation as the indispensable reporter of our time.

In Chain of Command, Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. He reveals the connections between early missteps in the hunt for Al Qaeda and disasters on the ground in Iraq. The book includes a new account of Hersh's pursuit of the Abu Ghraib story and of where, he believes, responsibility for the scandal ultimately lies. Hersh draws on sources at the highest levels of the American government and intelligence community, in foreign capitals, and on the battlefield for an unparalleled view of a crucial chapter in America's recent history. With an introduction by The New Yorker's editor, David Remnick, Chain of Command is a devastating portrait of an Administration blinded by ideology and of a President whose decisions have made the world a more dangerous place for America.